Holy City, Batman

We are underway northbound in the Atlantic Ocean, crossing Onslow Bay and bound for the anchorage off Fort Macon, in the Beaufort-Morehead City North Carolina area. The plotter is predicting an arrival around 8:30pm, and we left Charleston around 9am yesterday morning, making for close to a 36-hour passage.

USS Yorktown at night from our anchorage. The red white and blue lights replaced the all white of our last visit, maybe for the Semiquincentennial.

Thursday after I posted we increased RPMs to be sure to make the North Edisto rather than settling for the South Edisto. We had a nice dinner underway and crossed the bar south of the main channel thanks to arriving at a tide of +6'. The ebb was just starting as we made our way through the inlet.

I caught this sunset as we were steaming up the North Edisto toward South Creek.

Not wanting to push against the current up to the familiar Bohicket Creek, we instead turned off at the first opportunity, into South Creek on Edisto Island. We dropped the hook at the first bend, a short distance from an anchored shrimper (map). It turned out to be a very pleasant and extremely calm anchorage and we had a quiet night. It was not dark; the shrimper had his deck lights on.

Cheers from Halls.

Friday we got an early start to catch the last of the flood up the North Edisto. That gave us a fair tide most of the day, including riding the ebb down the Stono and squirting through Elliotts Cut with 2.5 knots behind us, necessitating a Sécurité call. That elicited a response from a tug and barge, whom I had previously called directly to learn they'd come through well after our transit, telling us they were coming through ahead of schedule. We had to circle in the Stono for over 15 minutes, and I was mighty annoyed, but you can't argue with that much rusty steel. We rounded the battery and pushed against it up the Cooper to a familiar anchorage just off the USS Yorktown museum ship (map).

The mouthwash at Halls is easily distinguished from the monogrammed hand soap, unlike some yacht clubs which use nearly identical dispensers. Ask me how I know.

We splashed the tender at slack, and at dinner time we made our way across the harbor to the Charleston Maritime Center, where my first task was to fuel up the dinghy. After I bought two gallons of gas they waived the dinghy landing fee and we walked over to the Dash shuttle bus stop at the Aquarium. My app said we'd had a fifteen minute wait and we decided instead to just walk into town, where we scored the last pair of bar stools at Halls Chop House about ten minutes before their kitchen opened at 4pm. If you wait until dinner time the bar is full. We had our favorite bartender, Josh, and dined on the very reasonable bar menu.

I did my grocery shopping with the firefighters. That's the historic Bennett Rice Mill facade behind them.

We were out of lunch fixings, and so Saturday morning I tendered ashore for groceries. On my way I swung by a brand new set of docks we had noticed on our way upriver; I found them closed with "construction area" and "private dock" signs. They are attached to the also brand-new and recently opened Cooper resort hotel, on the site of what had been the tired brutalist home of the Ports Authority when we first started stopping here. The developer's web site indicated it would be a transient marina and water taxi landing; we will see how it shapes up.

In case you wondered what happens to all those wonky shopping cart wheels.

I once again landed at CMC and walked to Harris Teeter for the lunch items and also to score some Pluff Mud Porter before leaving the Holy City. After lunch I had to dinghy right back to meet the driver for our Walmart delivery, wherein I ended up waiting a half hour or so. CMC again waived our dinghy fee; I think they remember us from our several stays in Vector.

The historic ex-Corps of Engineers ship Robert Gray, now a private expedition charter, at the CMC dock. Shuttered tower in the background is the ill-fated Dockside condominium.

With good passage weather coming up, we spent quite a bit of time in the afternoon discussing passage options. From Charleston there are good outside runs to Georgetown, Little River, Cape Fear, and Beaufort. The timing is such, however, that each of those mandates a different departure time from Charleston, and so you really need to choose and commit to one. "Bailing out" can mean coming in in the middle of the night, or pushing against several knots of outgoing tide, or both. We decided the conditions were good enough for the full 36-hour run to Beaufort, which gets us around a lot of shallow water and high-traffic areas.

Daytime view of Yorktown. Even at this distance their aircraft collection is impressive.

At dinner time the harbor was so choppy from all the weekend traffic that I called the closer Charleston Harbor Marina to ask if we could tie up to eat in one of their restaurants. Unlike our last visit in November, when they directed us to an ungated dock free of charge, this time they wanted no less than $65 to tie the dinghy up for dinner. No thanks -- your restaurants are not that good. I think that might include the other resort amenities such as the pool, but we had no need.

We heard the CG talking to this fishing trawler who got their gear tangled with this ship channel buoy. They eventually freed themselves but earned a CG boarding inspection in the process.

Instead we bashed our way back across the Cooper and walked to the Big Gun Burger Shop & Bar. This is a dive with a pool table in the back and an all-local clientele, and we really enjoyed it, even with a limited menu and no draft beer. Afterward we walked next door to the College of Charleston where I had a package in an Amazon locker. When I pulled up the directions it said the locker was only available to CoC students (drat!) but it turned out not to be behind any kind of gate or even restrictive signage. We did walk right by it at first because it was in CoC livery rather than the traditional Amazon blue, yellow, or gray.

Local dive with excellent burgers and a large beer list.

On the way back to the dock we stopped in at the Saffron Bakery & Cafe for a couple of passage bagels and a piece of coconut cake for dessert to go. Both were disappointing, with the bagels more like bread and the cake a bit stale. The harbor was a tad less choppy on the return trip, and we decked the tender after it calmed down even more.

We popped into the College of Charleston bookstore while hunting for the Amazon locker.

Yesterday's ebb was forecast for 9:30, and I tried to sleep in, even staying up past 2 on Saturday, but my circadian rhythm was uncooperative. The tide was already turning by 9am, and we elected to weigh a little early and slow-roll out of the harbor to avoid outrunning it. Traffic was light, but I did notice the bulk carrier Batman (seriously) maneuvering in the harbor, inspiring today's post title. We passed at least five inbound sailboats on our way out, all of whom we running the middle of the ship channel (we always stay outside the ship channel in Charleston). Louise reported that before I got up, she had heard no fewer than three five-blast signals (how ships tell pleasure boats they are in the way).

Stowaway.

The item I had picked up at the locker was a replacement for the failed charging solenoid, and I had grand plans to brave the engine room heat and install that underway yesterday. But when I opened the box, clearly marked 24v, what I found was a solenoid marked just as clearly at 36v. I used my regulated power supply to test it; it's a 36v model. A replacement is on its way to Morehead city.

36v contactor in a 24v box. I took this pic for the return process.

Our passage has been strangely calm but at the same time very rolly, and it is difficult to move around the boat. I found it difficult to do my daily stretches and exercises, and Louise was hoping to sew but has been mostly foiled. We're looking forward to being in calmer waters tonight.

Last night's sunset over the Carolinas.

I am posting this courtesy of the opt-in, pay-per-GB "ocean data" on our Starlink terminal, the first time we've used the feature. On our previous international jaunts, the policy was different and the lines more fuzzy, and we just tolerated the short interruptions, but now there is a sharp cut-off at the limit of the terriotiral sea. Keeping our route inside the 12nm line on this passage would have added hours, and I think the extra diesel at today's prices would be more than the cost of the ocean data.

Best my phone could do with Jupiter and the new moon.

Making this outside passage has knocked five full days off our northing schedule. We're working our way to Hampton Roads to fly to Nevada for our niece's wedding, and before today we had a little over a two-week buffer. That is now three weeks, and we're looking at maybe arriving early so each of us can also fly for family medical issues ahead of the wedding. I'm waiting to hear if the marina has room, and the plan is still very fluid.